


confess

by dame_de_la_chance



Category: Code Lyoko
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Male Friendship, Not Beta Read, idiots calling each other out, loosing ur powers would suck cause it’s literally a part of u, no editing we die like nonbinaries, so i applied that here., the others are mentioned of course, the powers things was a big part in garage kids and it was tied into their dna, well. i think it is.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-24
Updated: 2019-05-24
Packaged: 2020-03-13 08:52:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18937597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dame_de_la_chance/pseuds/dame_de_la_chance
Summary: Odd’s Future Flash program wasn’t deleted by the supercomputer when it rebooted, but by someone else. Jeremie gets confronted, and realizes that maybe he made a mistake after all.





	confess

“I know what you did.”

The words chilled the blood in his veins, and he froze in place. He didn’t glance over, his hands hovering over his keys, the systematic clacking sound stalled. He could see the shadow of a figure at his doorway, the presence of someone looming over him. 

“I’m not sure I know what you mean.” He did.

He turned around in his seat, slowly, trying to keep his breathing steady. He didn’t commit some heinous crime, so why was he so anxious?

Odd tilted his head. He was leaning against his doorframe, and Jeremie was certain he had locked the door before beginning his coding. It didn’t surprise him that the door had opened without his notice, however; he had been rather absorbed in his computer.

“Don’t play dumb. I call you Einstein for a reason.” He crossed his arms, then glanced behind him. He crossed into his room, shutting the door behind him with a final click. 

Jeremie rolled his eyes. “I’m not a mind reader. Just spit it out.”

“Alright. I know you deleted my Future Flash program.”

Jeremie kept a straight face despite the sting to those words. “What?”

“I’m not stupid.” Odd was bouncing his leg, frowning, and there was a serious glint in his eyes that made Jeremie reconsider his playing dumb decision. “I might not be super geniuses like you and Aelita, but my brain isn’t completely fried. Did you think I wouldn’t realise how shoddy your excuse was?”

“Odd, I didn’t delete anything. When the supercomputer rebooted-“

“Yes, yes! It somehow deleted my Future Flash despite doing literally nothing else!” He threw his hands in the air. “Because that makes complete sense! I’m not a tech wiz, but fuck Jeremie, that just doesn’t make sense. Why the hell did the reboot only affect me? Why not anyone else’s powers? Aelita’s been stuck in that thing for ten years and she’s fine! So why did my codes get all messed up after one reboot?”

Jeremie adjusted his glasses. “Sometimes reboots end up deleting harmless programs. It happens with normal computers, and it happened with the supercomputer. Computers aren’t completely accident proof.”

“A supercomputer isn’t accident proof,” he repeated. “Isn’t it supposed to be perfect? Franz Hopper was a fucking genius, and while I’m pretty sure he went a little nuts, he had enough screws tightened to make Lyoko. I can’t believe his machine would just... delete someone’s power. And only one person’s. If it mistook my program for a virus or whatever, shouldn’t it have done the same to Ulrich and Yumi?”

“Not necessarily-“

“But probably.” He rubbed his forehead. “Listen. I get it. You’re a super genius, you think you can pull the wool over my eyes cause I’m dumb. And you got me for a little while, I won’t lie. But just own up, okay? Just admit it. I know you did it, you know you did it. Just own up.”

Jeremie sighed. “Odd, I get where you’re coming from but really? Why would I delete your Future Flash?”

“‘Cause you hate it. ‘Odd, it only gets in your way’, ‘Odd, you can’t control it’, ‘Odd, it doesn’t even give us any good information’, ‘Odd, that thing’s got you devirtualized more times than you can count’.” He mimicked Jeremie, easing his voice to a higher pitch and making a mouth with his hand. “All you ever did was talk about how much it sucked. I can count on one hand the times you complimented the program. All you did was complain, complain, complain.”

Jeremie frowned. “I don’t sound like that.”

“You do.” He put his hands in his pockets and stared him in the eyes. “You’ve got the motivation, and the skill power. You’re my friend Einstein, and friends aren’t supposed to keep secrets. I already know the answer, but I’m still going to ask you. Did you delete my Future Flash?”

Jeremie remained silent. He was right. Friends shouldn’t keep secrets, especially ones that pertain to each other, and ones that are this big. The hesitation was likely answer enough.

“Yes.”

A pause. Jeremie watched as Odd watched him. They both knew that he had, but Odd seemed surprised to hear it admitted. Odd kicked the ground, tearing his eyes off of Jeremie to stare at his feet.

“Ah.” He didn’t sound happy with the confession. “I was right.”

“Yeah. You were.” He stared at him, trying to understand what was going through Odd’s head. The boy was an open book when he wanted to be, but he could easily shut off what he was feeling from others. The perks of being a fine arts kid with parents in theatre. You learn how to act, he supposed. “Are you angry?”

“Am I angry?” He repeated. He sharply glanced up, his eyes blazing. “Actually, yeah, I am kind of pissed.”

“Why?” In all honesty, he did him a favour. “Future Flash was worthless. All it did was get in the way. I’ve told you this countless times already. I mean, how many times have you been divirtualized because of it? And it never gives you any good information!”

“I don’t care!” Odd kicked the chair Jeremie was sitting in, startling Jeremie. He jolted up in his seat, wearily watching his friend. He looked genuinely cross, a fire burning in his eyes, a sharp and angry frown twisting his lips. It was almost scary. Jeremie has never seen him angry before, much less enraged.

“I don’t care,” he repeated, softer. The fire dimmed as he ran his fingers through his hair, a tick that showed his patience was wearing thin. “Jeremie, you’re real smart, but you sure are stupid when it comes to people’s emotions.”

He tried not look as miffed as he felt, even though Odd was right. People weren’t like computers; they weren’t predictable and they were hard to analyse.

“Listen. Future Flash was a part of me. I know you hated it, and I won’t lie, sometimes I thought it was kind of annoying myself, but it was still a part of me.” He paused, thinking. “It wasn’t great, but it has helped the team a few times. If I’d had more time, maybe I could’ve even gotten it under control. It’s not has blatantly helpful as Ulrich and Yumi’s, because it’s not all brawn. You should know mental power is just as important as physical.”

He sat down on Jeremie’s bed. He was calmer now, but there was an edge to his voice. “It was a part of me, Jeremie. It was kinda shitty, but it was mine. And you took it away from me, and that makes me kind of pissed, because you didn’t even ask. You didn’t ask for my opinion, you just deleted it. I get where you’re coming from, but it’s a dick move. It’s like if I just took a bat and smashed your computer. It’s not important to me, but it is to you.”

Jeremie stared at the ground. A sense of shame was slowly filling him. He hadn’t really taken into account how personal the deletion of the program would be. He supposed it makes sense; he had basically messed with Odd’s DNA. It was a part of him on a scale Odd likely didn’t even realise.

“And now I have no power.” There was a bitter aftertaste to those words. “Yumi has telekinesis, Ulrich has super speed and god knows what else that comes with it, and Aelita has her cool creativity. Future Flash was all I had. Now I just got these dumb arrows. Even my shield isn’t special! Aelita can make those, and even bigger!” 

Oh.

“Future Flash was my shtick! It was mine! It was special! And it was pretty damn cool too! And now I’ve got nothing!” He rubbed his face. “Everyone else has all these cool and flashy powers and weapons and all I got are arrows that I have to concentrate to use or else they’ll miss, it maybe they won’t even fire! You know how hard it is to fight William when all you can do is shoot a couple arrows and maybe scratch at him? And yeah, maybe Future Flash wouldn’t help with that, but I guess we just don’t know!”

It wasn’t just about the deletion of Future Flash. Jeremie wasn’t exactly a person who could read others, but this was pretty obvious. He felt inadequate in comparison to his friends. 

“Odd, if you’re upset about not being as good as Ulrich and Yumi-“

“Oh no, I know I’m great.” He flashed a sharp smile. “I don’t have shit and I can still fight as good as them, but it still sucks. Future Flash gave me an edge, and now I don’t even have that slight advantage.”

Jeremie hesitantly touched Odd’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Odd. I didn’t realise how important Future Flash was to you. I didn’t even bother trying to understand how you’d feel. Having something of yours just get deleted... that was a dick move on my part.”

Odd laughed. He threw back his head and laughed. It wasn’t what Jeremie was expecting, and it almost sounded manic.

“Sorry, sorry.” He elbowed his side. “It was just funny hearing you say dick.”  
He took a deep breathe. He never could keep up with conversations with Odd. He thought they were having an emotional connection here, and yet...

“I’m still pissed,” Odd stated as he wrapped his arm around Jeremie’s shoulder. “But you apologized, and while I can hold grudges, I won’t with you.”

“I appreciate that,” Jeremie muttered, and Odd gave him a small smile.

“I don’t need Future Flash to know that we’re still gonna be good friends, even with you pulling this bullshit. God knows I’ve done shit, too.”

Jeremie smiled back at him. “I have a list.”

Odd laughed again and punched his arm. Jeremie knew that he had messed up, and knew that it wasn’t just going to blow over despite Odd’s easy attitude. He made a mistake, and while he couldn’t exactly fix it, he could make sure not to repeat it.

**Author's Note:**

> listen. I never believed for a second that the future flash got deleted because of the super computer. it just didn’t make sense to me, like how in evolution two sectors just disappeared after barely a year of it being deactivated despite them being perfectly fine the previous ten.
> 
> anyway. jeremie nerfed odd.
> 
> it was gonna be angstier but i’m a coward.


End file.
